Faculty and Staff — South Campus
Michael Andreeff, M.D., Ph.D.
Core Director
mandreeff@mdanderson.org
713-792-7261
Andreeff joined MD Anderson in 1990 after having worked at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York in the Departments of Pathology and Leukemia. Andreeff has been a pioneer in flow cytometry since 1971, when he established the first flow cytometry laboratory at the University of Heidelberg and organized the first European meeting on flow cytometry. In 1977, he joined Drs. Melamed and Darzynkiewicz at Memorial Sloan Kettering and became head of the Leukemia Cell Biology and Hematopathology flow cytometry laboratory. He is professor of medicine and holds the Paul and Mary Haas Chair in Genetics. He is principal investigator of a P01 grant entitled “The Therapy of AML” and participates as PI in the Leukemia and Breast Cancer SPOREs and the CML P01 at MD Anderson. He heads the Section of Molecular Hematology and Therapy, which is adjacent to the North Campus Flow Cytometry Core Facility. Andreeff provides overall direction of the core facility and assists users with the design and implementation of their experiments. He develops and evaluates new technologies and applications. In the last five years, he recruited and trained Douglas Weidner, Ph.D., Randall Evans, Ph.D., and Jared Burks, Ph.D., as well as Wendy Schober, and selected and secured funds from the institution for new equipment. He will continue to dedicate 10% of his time to the core facility.
Karen Clise-Dwyer, Ph.D.
Professor of Hematopoietic Biology & Malignancy
Co-Director, Flow Cytometry & Cellular Imaging Facility
kcdwyer@mdanderson.org
713-563-3322
Clise-Dwyer directs all operations at the Flow Cytometry and Cellular Imaging Core Facility — South Campus. Clise-Dwyer has 20 years of experience with cytometry instrumentation and a wide array of applications, with particular interests in high-content multiparametric single cell analysis and sorting. Clise-Dwyer leads all planning, new instrumentation selection, personnel decisions, grant proposals and funding requests, resource use tracking, staff and client education, and determines SCFC budget allocations. The Flow Cytometry and Cellular Imaging Core Facility — South Campus has grown rapidly while still maintaining very high (>92%) user satisfaction. Clise-Dwyer is a member of the International Society for the Advancement of Cytometry (ISAC) and is a former president of the regional cytometry user's group, FlowTex, a major source for cytometry education in the Texas Medical Center and beyond. Clise-Dwyer is always available to meet with core lab users and PIs upon request; she collaborates with and provides advice to many researchers throughout the MD Anderson community.
Karen Ramirez, B.S.
Laboratory Manager
kmramirez@mdanderson.org
713-563-3344
Ramirez has been involved in Flow Cytometry since 1983. She has worked in clinical research labs and in product development and technical support in the flow cytometry industry. At MD Anderson, Ramirez has worked in the Flow Cytometry and Cellular Imaging Core Facility — South Campus since 1992. Since that time, the core has grown significantly in terms of instrumentation, technical capabilities, and number of users served. Ramirez now manages the ACSF. She is responsible for operation of all instruments, management of consumables, verifying billing and training new staff and clients. She participates in staff selection and training, staff management activities, SOP development and other projects for the ACSF. Ramirez has been involved in teaching flow cytometry concepts and techniques to numerous undergraduates, summer students, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and visiting scientists. She is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the Flow Cytometry and Cellular Imaging Core Facility — South Campus.
David Dwyer, B.S., SCYM(ASCP)CM
Coordinator, Flow Cytometry Lab
ddwyer@mdanderson.org
713-563-3345
Dwyer obtained his B.S. in biological sciences from the University of New Hampshire. After several years doing protein mutagenesis and purification, Dwyer has worked in immunology labs since 2002. His research has focused on CTL responses to melanoma and investigation of the role of T-regulatory cells in the pathogenesis of cancer. In that capacity, he developed significant skills in flow cytometry experimental methods and data analysis. Since joining the core staff, he has expanded his skills and is now a cell sorting specialist. Dwyer joined the core staff in March 2013.
Veena Papanna, M.S., SCYM(ASCP)CM
Coordinator, Flow Cytometry Lab
vpapanna@mdanderson.org
713-563-3345
Papanna received her master's degree in microbiology from the University of Bangalore, India in 2002. She received an M.B.A. in hospital management from USU Russia in 2015. She has more than 10 years of biomedical and immunology research experience, including more than five years of experience working in flow cytometry core facilities. Papanna received cytometry certification from ISAC in March 2015 and she has attended many hours of cytometry training provided by BD, ISAC, FloCyte, Leica, and Amnis. She has expertise in handling sorting and analysis flow cytometry assays and Amnis ImageStream experiments. Along with acquisition software, she has knowledge of other analysis software, including FlowJo, Kaluza, and FCS Express. She has been associated with the core facility since 2011.
Kathryn Cox, B.S., SCYM(ASCP)CM
Coordinator, Flow Cytometry Lab
kequinta@mdanderson.org
713-563-3350
Cox became a part-time member of the Flow Cytometry and Cellular Imaging Core Facility — South Campus in June 2011. She obtained her B.S. in biology from the University of Houston. She has more than 16 years of flow cytometry experience and 10 years of experience with mAb conjugations for ACSF users upon request. She has several years of experience staining, acquiring and analyzing samples with 30+ parameters. She maintains and orders all supplies for the core facility. She consults with core users to help them design panels for their experiments and assists with high parameter FlowJo-based data analysis. Cox also provides acquisition assistance on cell sorters and analyzers within ACSF.
Matthew Ramirez
Research Technician
msramirez1@mdanderson.org
713-563-3345
Born in Houston, Ramirez attends the University of Houston, where he studies Biology. He joined the Flow Cytometry and Cellular Imaging Core Facility — South Campus in June of 2018 as a student extern. He assists in cell sorting. Ramirez is very interested in learning about the instrumentation and basics of flow cytometry.